Sarah and Elliott

How We Met

Elliott and I met in our ceramics class in high school. We were both taking advanced level ceramics, and our teacher made the class sit boy-girl-boy-girl to lower the chatting. We all know how that turned out. I remember the first day of class, Elliott seemed to take an interest in me and kept looking in my direction. He was too shy to say anything and I kept waiting for him to make the first move. After a week or so of silence, I decided to strike up a conversation. If there is one thing you need to know about Elliott, it is that before you get to know him, he can be extremely quiet.

Once you do break through, it’s all you can do to get him to stop talking about the newest science discovery or the nuances of finance. Of course, after a few weeks, I was completely head-over-heels. I tried to talk to Elliott every chance I could get – in class, during lunch, I even took the long way to class just so that I would run into him in the hall. It was your typical high school crush. By the end of the fall semester, I was beginning to feel frustrated that Elliott didn’t seem to be taking an interest. I decided to profess my love to him in the way that only a high school girl can: “I like you. I really like-you-like-you”. He responded by telling me that he really liked me too. But then the bell rang for the next period, and he left for AP Physics. I didn’t get some great romantic gesture like I had been expecting, so I was crushed.

The next day of school, Elliott didn’t meet me for lunch. Of course, I thought that I had completely messed things up. My friend Christina found Elliott in the library, because it turns out that he hadn’t finished his homework for his next class. She asked him if he liked me, and he said yes. She then told him that he had to ask me to be his girlfriend and to stop being so shy. So Elliott found me in the courtyard, and asked me if I would be his girlfriend. Of course, I said yes. Fast forward a few years; we both ended up studying at New York University. Finance and Accounting for Elliott, and Biology for me. We didn’t end up together in New York without doing some long-distance first, though.

Elliott is a year older than I am so we spent a year apart when he went off to college and then another year when I went to Southwestern University before transferring to NYU. We moved in together in our first apartment in New York- tiny, old, and even a little slanted (we propped up our furniture on doorstops) in the lower east side with our two kitties. Living in New York was a time of growth and challenge for both of us, but we grew together and it made us stronger than ever. I spent time studying abroad in London, and once Elliott graduated, he moved to Houston, TX, all adding to our long distance relationship score. After another year apart from each other, I graduated and moved down to Houston to be with Elliott, hopefully ending our long distance relationship forever.

How He Asked

It all began on Christmas Eve morning, when I opened up a present that contained an ornament that said, “adventure awaits,” and a pair of fake plane tickets to an unknown location in March. The next three months were filled with excitement, anticipation, and sneaky hints dropped by Elliott about where we were going. He had even hung a map on the fridge and every night he would color off a country that we weren’t traveling to.

March 21st finally came, and Elliott told me we were going to London! I was so excited to be traveling to a place that means so much to me – my dad is from England and so much of my family still lives there. Since I had also spent time studying abroad in London while at NYU, it’s the city that holds my heart! Elliott had never been to the UK, so I was really excited to show him all of my favorite places, and for him to meet that side of my family for the first time.

While on our trip, we decided to go for a walk in Hyde Park, my favorite park in London where I used to go running after class. Our walk started out cold and overcast, like much of the trip had been so far. However, when we came across the Italian Gardens, the sun broke through the clouds and made for spectacular views. We stopped to take a few selfies, and then Elliott suggested that we have someone take our photo with the fountains in the background. He asked a nearby woman for assistance. She was incredibly nice and after taking a few photos on my cell phone, she offered to take one on her nice camera and then take our emails so she could send them to us. Since she had an American accent, I figured she was just another tourist like us!

After a few cute poses, I asked if we were all set, to which Elliott replied, “how about one more?” and got down on one knee.

don’t remember most of the details of his speech because I was so excited but it was very poetic and beautiful. At some point I’m sure he asked me to marry him because I remember saying yes! It turns out that the woman who had taken our photo was actually our photographer, Amy Fanton, and she had been planning this moment with Elliott for months!

After the proposal, we spent time taking photos with Amy and telling her about our story of how we met. It was the perfect day and now we can’t wait to spend the rest of our lives together! After over seven years together, it’s about time we make it official.